Now, time for our "rando" to shine.

Chapter 186: At Wakanda's Borders Part Four

Earlier - Wakanda's Throne Room

Kili is back to doing her homework and eating her assortment of food from the kitchen, mostly the latter as music blasts through her ears. She nods and kicks her feet back and forth to the beat until another tap on the shoulder distracts her. Kili takes off her headphones and she thinks that it must be dinner already which is exciting. She's starving and was salivating over the cooks preparing dinner when she was getting her snacks earlier.

"If he isn't in the mines, Iqadi, then I don't know-"

Kili's entire body freezes when she sees unfamiliar men in the throne room, armed with guns strapped all over their bodies and one in their hands. Her limbs shrivel up to her chest as she forces her hands up. They're yelling orders to each other but Kili can't process any of them as her heart pounds louder than the music she was listening to prior. Her parents were right, she shouldn't listen that loud that it blocks out everything else.

"Alright, not the Princess but the Prince's sister," the possible leader of these men states. "We'll have to restrategize but that means less work for us."

Kili's mouth dries but then her jaw drops open when she sees a woman phase through the door, walking through it as if it was open. She keeps her hands up but her arms shake. She's too scared to breathe thinking it will draw attention or open fire.

"Dulamah, the mines are taken care of," the woman who phased through the door says to the possible leader. "The Prince Consort was in the mines and, to our benefit, so was the Princess. The moment I saw her in there, I knew we had to act fast. Hold on, boys. You too, kid."

Kili doesn't realize she was being spoken to until the room starts shaking. It's no normal earthquake but one that rattles in her teeth. Her bones shake as she falls out of her seat. Nobody points a gun at her but she crawls underneath thrones to shield herself.

She curls herself into a ball as tight as she can. Tears fall from her eyes and she can no longer hear her heartbeat over the ground thumping against her body. Objects fall, scattering and splattering on the ground, on the throne just inches above her head. Windows shatter and ornate decorates crack. Kili's mind can't create a comprehensive thought, not even a prayer to a Panther God she isn't sure will hear her over this noise.

Once it's calm, a ringing in Kili's ears distracts her that she doesn't notice she's pulled out from under the thrones until her ankle almost pops out of its socket. She remains lying on the ground as Anasi and Dulamah continue talking, seeming not bothered by the earthquake. She thought she would've died. Her mind can't wrap itself around anything that happened in the past … she doesn't know how long it's been.

Iqadi and Imanu were in the mines. The Great Mound exploded and they were there. It was so immense that she felt it. All this was a trap to kill them, or at least kill her brother since they didn't think Iqadi would be in the Mound. Maybe they thought she'd be here in the throne room. They couldn't be dead but Kili didn't have much hope. She knew the mines were dangerous and complicated, especially with a resource as powerful and finicky as vibranium. A resource that absorbs vibrations and shoots them back out as kinetic energy. Waves pulsating back and forth within the walls of pure vibranium? How could anyone survive that?

She doesn't want to think about it anymore.

What was the last thing she told her parents? Iqadi? Imanu? Doesn't matter because she'll see them again. She has to. She will.

And for that to happen, she has to stay strong. She has to act unfazed. A tough front. She knows that whenever Iqadi and Imanu leave the country, even with King T'Challa and Queen Ororo, they leave her in charge of the country as a joke but now it feels real. Right now, in a room where she's essentially powerless, she has to study and understand it if she wants to survive.

-o-

Kili remains seated on the floor as two henchmen stay at her sides, armed to the teeth in case she tried something. She wants to tell them she won't do anything but they won't believe her. In all honesty, her body feels too heavy and drained to pull a stunt. She can only think of Iqadi and Imanu in the remains of the Mound and her parents probably scrambling back to Wakanda with Iqadi's.

Kili wants to believe Iqadi and Imanu survived the explosion. They had to.

But if they had, why wasn't Iqadi here to kick these guys over and take her throne back? At best, she was strategizing somewhere. Kili likes that theory.

"Anasi, what do we do about the girl?" Dulamah asks, gesturing to Kili.

Anasi eyes her for a moment. "We need her alive. Wakanda's reinforcements will be here soon, definitely before the King but we'll be out of here before he comes home."

"We trade the girl for the vibranium we need, and more."

"Precisely."

Kili can't keep quiet. If anything, she can buy everyone more time and waste theirs. "I don't think that's a fair trade."

All goes silent as they look at her. Kili stands up, weapons following her. She brushes off King T'Challa's throne before taking a seat. Her food tray is now scattered on the floor around them but her homework remains unscathed.

If she'll be kept hostage, she might as well get comfortable.

"Do you know the price for a bag of vibranium?" Dulamah asks her.

"What? Like a backpack? A purse?" Kili questions, acting like the dumb teenage girl a good portion of Wakanda probably see her as. "I took notes in my Economics of Vibranium class if you want a copy."

Dulamah and Anasi remain quiet as they glance at each other.

"Either way, I know we have a monopoly over vibranium but it isn't for sale and neither am I," Kili states proudly.

"Look kid, don't run your mouth with us," Anasi threatens.

"I'm your currency," Kili barters. "Do anything to me and you'll be paying the price. What are you going to do about it?"

Anasi narrows her eyes and balls her hands into fists. "If the kid gets on your nerves, knock her out."

Kili pouts. "But I'll lose my monetary value."

Anasi rolls her eyes. "I'm heading to the meet-up point. I'll let you know when we're heading out."

Kili is still impressed watching Anasi phase through the wall. "You know that power or gadget is cool and all, but my sister-in-law's weather manipulation is way cooler. No offence."

Dulamah and his henchmen remain quiet. Kili likes to think they agree with her. She picks up her backpack from the ground and dumps its contents out onto the floor. Not only is the throne room already a mess but she only has school books, pencils, and hair ties. Kili picks up a hair tie to pull her braids back to show that she isn't armed.

Kili sits back on the throne and fiddles with a pen. "While we wait, do any of you know binomial coefficients? I have this math packet due tomorrow and I don't think my teacher will accept being kept hostage as an excuse for not completing it."

"Keep quiet," Dulamah orders.

"Help me with my homework or else I'm telling your boss that you don't know math."

"That's blackmail!"

Kili shrugs. "Better than assault. Okay, fine, no more math since you can't do it and I don't want you to feel bad while holding a loaded gun. Say, do you like my shoes?" She kicks her feet up. "My brother and his wife, you know, the Prince and Princess you want to kill, got them for me in America."

"We killed them," he says in a low tone that shows annoyance. "They didn't come out of the mines in time."

Kili plasters a smile to hold back a scream. She takes a quick breath to calm her inner storm. "Do you really think a little explosion killed my brother? He's spent nearly his whole life there. He knows it better than anyone in Wakanda."

"Then where is he?"

Kili blinks. He has her there. "I have homework."

Kili slouches on the throne, sandwiching her binder between her face and her knees that she brings up to her chest. She thinks King T'Challa will forgive her for putting her feet on his throne this one time.

When Wakanda was wracked with the worst storm in all of history, Kili was in school. She and her classmates were hiding in the basement after direct orders from the palace. She was worried about everyone back then but it feels like a flicker of worry compared to now.

She pretends to write by scribbling across the margins, but once she sees Iqadi's neat scrawl under the first question, the numbers and exponents blur on the page through her tears.